This invention relates to stirrup pads, also known as tread pads, for stirrups associated with saddles for riding purposes. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved stirrup pad configured to help a saddle occupant maintain a safer, more stable, and more stylish (in terms of riding form) mount upon a saddled animal.
Stirrup pads are well known, as demonstrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,639,073 and 2,187,983. Generally, prior stirrup pads provide a rest, or foothold, that attaches to a saddle stirrup, thereby materially increasing the foot-bearing surface of the stirrup. Typically, stirrup pads include an upper, foot-supporting surface having a tread or friction-inducing portion for preventing the rider's foot from slipping out of the stirrup associated with the stirrup pad. Conventionally, the bottom portion of past stirrup pads is configured to provide for removable engagement with a stirrup. Stirrup pads are intended to help a rider maintain a saddled mount in a stable, safe manner.
However, conventional stirrup pads are not currently designed to provide for the maximum advantages which can be incorporated therein. Specifically, there exists a need for an improved stirrup pad which is configured to optimize the comfort of a saddle occupant, while simultaneously helping the rider to maintain a more stylish riding form (the focus of horse shows, for example) using proper technique. Preferred riding technique involves proper foot orientation within the saddle stirrup. A horse rider, for example, is taught to keep his (or her) heels down; that is, to orient the foot within the stirrup such that the foot is angled with the heel down, i.e. positioned lower than the upwardly angled toes of the foot. This preferred orientation has the rider's feet angled at a slant characterized by approximately an angle of between thirty and sixty degrees, with the rider's heels pointing towards the ground and the rider's toes facing substantially skywardly. Such foot positioning, within the stirrup atop the associated stirrup pad, is preferred because it provides for a more stable mount within the associated saddle, with better balance and proper weight distribution for the rider. Unfortunately, conventional, prior stirrup pads do not provide means for maintaining the rider's foot in this preferred angled orientation, Thus, there also exists a need for an improved stirrup pad having means for angling a rider's foot at a proper, preferred angle within the stirrup.
Currently, the rider must maintain a proper technique foot orientation without much help from a conventional stirrup pad; the sought-after angled orientation previously was achieved solely by the manner in which the rider positioned his or her feet within the stirrups. Achievement and maintenance of proper foot positioning within a saddle stirrup is too important a detail to leave solely to the responsibility of the rider, with no aid from the riding equipment, because proper foot positioning has safety implications as well. Specifically, an angled foot orientation within the stirrup, with the heel positioned at a height lower than the toes, prevents the foot from inadvertently and undesirably passing through the loop-like opening defined by a conventional stirrup. Such a scenario disadvantageously usually results in the rider's foot getting caught or hung up within the stirrup. This can have disastrous consequences if the rider should fall from the saddle mount because, with the rider's foot or feet trapped in the stirrup(s), the fallen rider will be dragged by the saddled horse, a situation often causing injuries to the rider and/or animal. Thus, there exists a need for an improved stirrup pad designed to maintain an angled foot orientation for safety reasons, to prevent a rider's feet from getting captured within either stirrup, thereby preventing a fallen rider from being dragged. An angled foot orientation allows the foot to easily slip out of a stirrup as a rider is dismounting (or is accidentally falling) from the saddle.
Moreover, there exists a need for an improved stirrup pad that can be used as a training aid to help new riders learn to maintain the proper foot orientation within a stirrup for the reasons of safety, style, and comfort noted above. Such a needed, improved stirrup pad should be of a simplified, inexpensive construction designed for durability, and should be removably attachable to a stirrup without requiring the use of tools or auxiliary parts or fasteners. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.